Deep and Wide Day 18 // We Need Each Other

THE LOST ARE FOUND / THE FOUND ARE FREED / THE FREED ARE CONNECTED / THE CONNECTED ARE COMMISSIONED

18th May // Connected – Day 18 // We Need Each Other

Reading – 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

“Well Darren are you ready for Saturday?” my friend asked. “What’s on Saturday? Why do I need to be ready?” They thought I was joking, but I wasn’t.

Turns out I had signed up to do a 13mile obstacle course on Saturday. I had forgotten. That means I hadn’t trained, I wasn’t fit, how on earth was I going to get through? This obstacle course wasn’t for the weak at heart. It was tough, it was gruelling, but do you know what? I made it! It wasn’t my fitness or preparation that got me through. It was my friends. We did it together.

In Matthew 28, Jesus gives us this job to do. “Go and make disciples of all nations”. That’s a huge task. Go and make disciples everywhere.

God knew we couldn’t do this on our own. He knew at times we’d want to quit and need some people there. He knew that sometimes life would get hard and we would struggle to get through. He also knew that we would have really good times in life and that we’d want to celebrate that with people.

And so God creates not just a man, but mankind. People. Plural. So that we could help each other. I could never do this race on my own. need everyone else.

In John 17 Jesus prays this huge prayer for us, and He mentions something repeatedly:

Verse 11

“protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.”

Verses 21-22

21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.

It seems like us being connected is important to Jesus, and if it’s important to Jesus it should be important to us.

So let’s be people who encourage connection, who try to bring out the best of people, not tear other people down, remembering that their wellbeing affects my wellbeing, because in God we’re all connected.

We’re all on the same team. We need everyone, and they need us. How can you encourage the other members of the body today?